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Number fun with my toddler

My daughter loves playing with numbers, whether it’s singing counting songs, finding numbers on signs when we’re out and about or watching ‘NumTums’ on CBeebies! Her enjoyment in learning is something I want to encourage and never want her to lose, so any activity I do with her I always want it to be ‘child lead’. Although I have included here some ideas and activities I do with her as a way to engage her and start her off.

I sometimes use these large foam numbers with Mairi when playing these number activities, but you could also flash cards or just draw large colourful numbers on A4 paper.

We sing nursery rhyme songs such as ‘Five Little Ducks’ or ‘Five little speckled frogs’ and hold up each number as we sing.

Three little ducks went swimming one day…

Mairi likes to trace each of the numbers with her finger. This will help her when it’s time to start learning how to write the numbers.

I use objects around the room and ask her ‘How many cuddly bears can you see?’ then ask her to find the number. We have a huge celebration when she gets it right!

I’ve tried asking Mairi to put the numbers in order or ask questions such as, ‘What number comes after four?’ but it’s a bit too advanced for her just now. She’ll probably get it when she’s a bit older.

Obviously when playing with toddlers it never works out how you’ve intended. Mairi decided that it would be much more fun to kiss through the number holes!